Decorative chrome finishes and other metallic finishes on plastic components are highly desired for automotive, appliance and teletronic components, as well as for other components used in a variety of household products. Such components are desirable for their relatively low cost, lightweight and attractive appearance. However, the electroplating of metallic finishes on plastic substrates has generally been limited to relatively few plastic substrates. In particular, techniques have been developed for commercially electroplating acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resin substrates and polymer alloys of polycarbonate (PC) and ABS to provide commercially successful, high-volume production of metal plated plastic components. Other plastic substrates that have been electroplated on a smaller scale include those comprised of polyamides, polyolefin resins, polyvinyl chloride, and phenol-formaldehyde polymers.
However, there are many relatively new engineering plastic materials and composite non-conductive materials that have been developed to meet the challenges for the stringent requirements of engineering performance in a wide variety of applications. Many of these materials cannot be electroplated using the processes conventionally employed for electroplating ABS and PC/ABS polymer alloys, and many other non-conductive plastics and composites cannot be electroplated easily and/or can only be electroplated using modified processes customized for the particular material.
It is extremely inconvenient and expensive (for the manufacturer and hence for the consumer) to modify and adjust electroplating processes to accommodate a large variety of different non-conductive substrates. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved process that can be uniformly applied to electroplate various non-conductive substrates that are either unplatable or difficult-to-plate using conventional techniques employed for electroplating ABS and/or PC/ABS polymer alloys.